On the iPhone 6 Plus

Oh boy. While I’m doing my best to focus on minimalism, there is a huge temptation that just landed, and I mean literally huge. Yes, I’m talking about the iPhone 6 Plus.

I hate being the hypocrite, but phones have always been my main weakness. Since selling my iPhone 5S, I’m rocking a beat up old iPhone 4, which along with a carrier subsidy, should give me enough reason to drop the cash for the iPhone 6 Plus (64GB, silver, if you must ask).

Being totally honest with myself, ignoring the odd bendgate article that pops up, I guess I’ll eventually cave and buy it, but until that happens, I must say I’m surprised that I’m enjoying my iPhone 4. It’s a beat up old thing by this point, especially since my mom dropped it and cracked the display, but I’m having a kick out of using it minimalist style, similar to how one might enjoy your favourite cassette mixtape on an old Sony Walkman that you dug up.

Interesting observations:

Everybody else in the family (who uses an iPhone) has moved to a device that uses a Lightning connector, so I’ve suddenly inherited all the old 30-pin connectors, meaning I have more iPhone cables than I need. Sure beats having to fight for the limited number of Lightning cables.

My iPhone and iPad 3 share the same cable again.

The iPhone 4 is slow, but it’s not that slow if you’re running it with minimal apps. It wasn’t too long ago that a pretty good piece on the distraction-free iPhone was written. I’m not quite doing that, but the concepts are similar.

Performance isn’t lightning fast, but it’s not as sluggish as when I previously installed all my usual apps on this device.

Due to the slower performance, it forces me to slow down my thoughts sometimes, instead of rushing through. This is actually something I’ve been trying to do, and the unexpected perk of having a slower phone is that I’m forced to do that.

It’s currently running the latest possible iOS firmware for this device. iOS 7.1.2.

Simple reasons why I might still get the iPhone 6 Plus:

Better battery life. The way I use my iPhone means I’m always charging it, but the larger display on the 6 Plus means that it has a larger battery.

I could ditch my iPad 3. Maybe even sell it. With the new larger display, the 6 Plus is comfortable enough for long periods of reading and watching videos, meaning I will rarely need my iPad anymore, however much I like it.